Understanding pageview tracking on hosted plans

[Discourse]

This topic explains the difference between Discourse’s legacy pageview tracking method and the new pageview tracking that was introduced in September 2024.

Required user level: Administrator

In September 2024, Discourse introduced a better way of tracking and reporting pageviews, providing more detailed insights into site traffic. This document outlines the key differences between the old method and the new approach.

Pageview tracking

We are in the process of rolling this pageview tracking out to hosted customers, so not all sites will be switched over right away.

The new method, presented in the “Site traffic” report, offers a more nuanced view of site traffic by categorizing pageviews into four types:

1. Pageviews (logged in): Pageviews from users who are logged into your Discourse instance.
2. Pageviews (anonymous): Pageviews from users who are not logged in but are using a web browser.
3. Known crawlers: Pageviews from identified web crawlers or bots (e.g., search engine crawlers).
4. Other traffic: This category includes various types of requests that don’t fall into the other three categories, including other crawlers.

The default report view hides the known crawlers and other traffic metrics, so that it aligns with the pageview metrics displayed elsewhere in the dashboard.

Note that only logged in browsers and anonymous browsers count toward the pageview limits on hosted plans.

Accessing the site traffic report

To view the new site traffic report:

1. Log in as an administrator
2. Go to the Discourse dashboard
3. Navigate to discourse.example.com/admin/reports/site_traffic

Find out more about pageview tracking and the site traffic report here:

Understanding pageviews and the site traffic report

This is an explanation about how Discourse handles pageviews and how to interpret the “Site traffic” report. Required user level: Administrator What are pageviews in Discourse? Pageviews in Discourse are counted as all requests for content by humans. This includes: Requests for lists of categories, topics, or posts The first load of a page Transitions between routes (e.g., moving from topics to the latest list) This does not include: Traffic from crawle…

Legacy tracking method

Discourse’s legacy method, that began being phased out in September 2024, counted pageviews as all requests for content, including:

• Requests for lists of categories, topics, or posts
• Initial page loads
• Transitions between routes
• All crawlers, whether known or unknown
• All Discourse API requests

The system would attempt to count pageviews only on initial page loads or significant route changes to avoid inflating numbers, and the pageviews would be listed as a single metric, with all of them counting toward pageview limits on hosted plans.

If you would like to access the reports for the legacy method to better track your pageview history you will find them in the “Legacy Consolidated Pageviews” and “Legacy Pageviews” reports.

Last edited by @hugh 2024-10-24T01:47:56Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-10-24T01:48:42Z

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